AbsentEase
Quebec sick leave law & call-off rules
Quebec protects sickness differently from the rest of the country: not a handful of days but up to 26 weeks of job-protected absence a year, with the first two days paid once the employee has three months' service, and since January 2025 a ban on asking for a medical note for the first three short absences in a year. After two years' service, any dismissal without good and sufficient cause can be taken to the labour tribunal, which can order reinstatement. Here is what applies in 2026.
Quebec at a glance
| Statute | Act respecting labour standards (CQLR c. N-1.1) · enforced by the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST, 1-844-838-0808) |
|---|---|
| Statutory sick leave | Up to 26 weeks of job-protected absence a year; first 2 days paid after 3 months' service |
| Doctor's note | Not for the first 3 absences of 3 days or less in 12 months; never a medical certificate for family obligation days |
| Family obligations | 10 days a year, first 2 paid under the shared cap |
| Notice of termination | 1 to 8 weeks by length of service after 3 months |
| Unjust dismissal recourse | After 2 years' service, a dismissal without good and sufficient cause can be contested within 45 days; reinstatement is a remedy |
| Vacation pay | 4%, or 6% after 3 years, always paid out |
| Employee notice to quit | Reasonable notice under the Civil Code; no fixed period in the Act |
Is paid sick leave required in Quebec?
Yes, two days. An employee may be absent for up to 26 weeks over 12 months because of sickness, an accident, organ or tissue donation, domestic violence or sexual violence (s. 79.1), and must be reinstated afterwards (s. 79.4). Once the employee has three months of uninterrupted service, the first two days of such absences in a year are paid (ss. 79.7 and 79.16), a cap shared with family obligation days. You may ask for a document attesting to the reason where the length or repetition of absences warrants it (s. 79.2), but since January 1, 2025 you may not request one for the first three periods of absence of three consecutive days or less in a 12-month period. Reprisal for exercising a right under the Act is prohibited (s. 122), and more advantageous conditions in a contract or agreement stand (s. 94).
How sick leave works in Quebec
| Protected absence | Up to 26 weeks over 12 months for sickness, accident, organ or tissue donation, domestic violence or sexual violence; 104 weeks for serious bodily injury caused by a crime (s. 79.1) |
|---|---|
| Paid days | The first 2 days of absence a year, after 3 months of uninterrupted service, shared between sickness and family obligations (ss. 79.7, 79.16) |
| Family obligations | 10 days a year for a child's care, health or education or the health of a relative or person in the employee's care, divisible into days (part days only with the employer's consent); first 2 days paid under the shared cap; a document may be requested but never a medical certificate (s. 79.7) |
| Doctor's notes | A document attesting to the reason may be requested where duration or repetition warrants, but not for the first 3 absences of 3 consecutive days or less in 12 months (s. 79.2, since January 1, 2025) |
| Repeated absences | The employer may still dismiss, suspend or transfer where the consequences of the illness or the repetitive nature of the absences amount to good and sufficient cause (s. 79.4, second paragraph), within the human-rights duty to accommodate |
| Workplace injuries | Governed by the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases, not s. 79.1 |
The rules that apply across Canada
The duty to accommodate
Every province's human rights code, and the Canadian Human Rights Act for federally regulated employers, requires accommodating a disability to the point of undue hardship, and "disability" includes mental illness and addiction. Absences tied to a disability cannot simply collect points: tribunals expect the employer to ask what is going on, consider modified duties or a leave, and document the effort. Long or repeated absences an employee cannot control are "innocent" (non-culpable) absenteeism, which is not misconduct and cannot be disciplined; employment can end for it only when the record shows the employee is unlikely to attend regularly in the foreseeable future and accommodation has been exhausted.
Employment Insurance
Service Canada, not the employer, decides whether a former employee gets regular EI benefits. Someone who quit without just cause or was dismissed for misconduct is disqualified, so the reason code on the Record of Employment and the call-off record behind it matter: a no-call no-show treated as abandonment is usually coded as a quit, and a dismissal for breaking a known attendance rule is argued as misconduct. Either way the employer's evidence is the written policy and the time-stamped record of what the employee did and did not report.
Unionized workplaces
Where a collective agreement applies, attendance discipline follows its just-cause and progressive-discipline clauses and any grievance goes to arbitration. Arbitrators expect the same things the statutes do: a written rule the employee knew about, consistent enforcement, and a contemporaneous record of each absence.
Banks, airlines, rail, interprovincial trucking, telecoms and a few other industries are federally regulated and follow the Canada Labour Code instead of Quebec's statute.
Call-offs, no-call no-shows, and dismissal in Quebec
Quebec's rules reward the employer that sorts call-offs before it reacts to them. An absence for sickness is protected for up to 26 weeks, the first two days are paid, and for the first three short absences of the year you may not ask for a note, so an attendance policy cannot point those days or treat them as misconduct (s. 122). What the Act does allow is action on the repetitive nature of absences where it amounts to good and sufficient cause (s. 79.4), and on the no-call no-show with no protected reason behind it, which is a disciplinary matter. The decisive constraint is s. 124: once an employee has two years' service, a dismissal that is not for good and sufficient cause can be undone by the Tribunal administratif du travail, which expects a known rule, progressive discipline, consideration of accommodation and a contemporaneous record. A "deemed resignation" clause does not bind the tribunal; an ambiguous departure is treated as a dismissal. A call-off hotline or text-based call-off line keeps the record the CNESST will ask for.
After a no call, no show termination in Quebec
| Does the statute define job abandonment? | No. The Act is silent, and a resignation must be clear, free and voluntary: an ambiguous departure is treated as a dismissal, and after two years' service the s. 124 recourse applies, so a deemed-resignation policy does not bind the tribunal. Document your calls and letters, give a written response window, rule out a s. 79.1 absence, then confirm in writing. (common law and civil law; Act respecting labour standards ss. 79.1, 124) |
|---|---|
| Final pay if you treat it as a dismissal | The compensatory indemnity for any missing notice is paid when employment ends; remaining wages follow the regular pay schedule, at intervals of no more than 16 days. (Act respecting labour standards ss. 43, 83) |
| Final pay if you treat it as a resignation | Wages follow the regular pay schedule. The Act sets no notice period for employees; the Civil Code of Québec calls for reasonable notice from either party. (s. 43; CCQ art. 2091) |
| Vacation pay at separation | Always owed: the indemnity for untaken leave plus 4% (6% after 3 years) of wages earned in the current reference year. (ss. 74, 76) |
| Employment Insurance | Service Canada decides. A claimant who voluntarily left without just cause, or who lost the job because of their own misconduct, is disqualified from regular benefits; a no-call no-show treated as abandonment is usually coded as a quit (Record of Employment code E) and a dismissal for breaking a known attendance rule as a dismissal (code M). Either way Service Canada may ask for the written policy and the call-off record. (Employment Insurance Act, ss. 29–30) |
Before treating silence as a resignation, try to reach the employee more than once, in writing, and keep the attempts: an employer who assumes abandonment after one missed shift usually ends up having dismissed someone, with the notice and severance that follow.
Write an attendance policy that fits Quebec
A written call-off rule, a single channel employees use to report an absence, and a carve-out for the statutory leaves above are what make attendance discipline hold up in Quebec. Our attendance policy guide walks through each section, and what a call-off hotline is explains the record it produces.
Minimum notice of termination in Quebec
| Length of service | Minimum notice (or pay in lieu) |
|---|---|
| Under 3 months | None |
| 3 months to under 1 year | 1 week |
| 1 to under 5 years | 2 weeks |
| 5 to under 10 years | 4 weeks |
| 10 years or more | 8 weeks |
Act respecting labour standards s. 82, which also applies to layoffs of six months or more; the compensatory indemnity for missing notice is the regular wage for the period, paid when employment ends (s. 83). No notice is owed to an employee with under three months' service, at the end of a fixed term, to an employee who has committed a serious fault, or in a case of superior force (s. 82.1). The larger constraint is s. 124: an employee with two years of uninterrupted service who believes they were dismissed without good and sufficient cause may complain to the CNESST within 45 days, and the Tribunal administratif du travail can order reinstatement and back pay. The common law usually requires more notice than the statute; the Act is the floor.
Final pay and vacation pay
| Scenario | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Employee is dismissed | The compensatory indemnity for any missing notice is paid when employment ends; other wages follow the regular pay schedule, at intervals of no more than 16 days | Act respecting labour standards ss. 43, 83 |
| Employee quits or abandons the job | Wages follow the regular pay schedule; the Act sets no notice period for employees, though the Civil Code of Québec (art. 2091) calls for reasonable notice from either party | s. 43; CCQ art. 2091 |
| Vacation pay | An indemnity of 4% of gross wages (6% after 3 years of uninterrupted service) for untaken leave, plus the percentage on wages earned in the current reference year | ss. 74, 76 |
| Unused paid sick days | Not paid out beyond the 2 paid days actually taken | s. 79.16 |
More advantageous conditions in a contract, policy or collective agreement apply in place of the Act (s. 94).
Leave employers must provide in Quebec
| Leave type | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sickness, accident, organ donation, violence | Yes — 2 days paid | Up to 26 weeks over 12 months (s. 79.1) |
| Family obligations | Yes — 2 days paid | 10 days a year, shared paid cap (s. 79.7) |
| Serious illness or accident of a relative | Yes — unpaid | 16 weeks over 12 months; longer for a minor child or end-of-life care (ss. 79.8 and following) |
| Bereavement | Yes — partly paid | Spouse, child, spouse's child, sibling or parent: 2 paid + 3 unpaid days (s. 80); in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren: 1 unpaid day (s. 80.1) |
| Birth, adoption or pregnancy loss | Yes — partly paid | 5 days, first 2 paid (s. 81.1) |
| Wedding or civil union | Yes — paid | 1 day (s. 81) |
| Public health or civil protection order | Yes — unpaid | When unable to work because of a public-health decision, a quarantine or emergencies order, a civil-protection order or a disaster; a document attesting to the reason may be requested, but not a medical certificate (s. 81.17.7, since October 28, 2025) |
| Reservist | Yes — unpaid | Operations outside Canada after 3 months' uninterrupted service, training and rehabilitation; up to 24 months in 60 (ss. 81.17.1, 81.17.5, as amended October 28, 2025) |
| Jury duty | Yes — unpaid | Jurors Act protection |
| Vacation | Yes | 2 weeks (3 after 3 years), indemnity 4% / 6% |
The public-health and reservist rules above come from An Act to improve certain labour laws (2025, chapter 28), in force October 28, 2025. Voting time comes from the Election Act rather than the labour standards Act.
The Quebec employer's attendance playbook
- Put it in writing. A written policy — the call-off deadline and channel, the steps of progressive discipline, the no-call no-show rule, and a carve-out for the statutory leaves and accommodated absences above — is what makes discipline defensible. Our attendance policy guide walks through it.
- Give call-offs one channel. "Tell whoever answers" is how records get lost. One number every employee texts or calls makes the record automatic.
- Log everything with timestamps. Employment-standards complaints, human rights applications and arbitrations are won on contemporaneous records, not recollections.
- Discipline progressively and consistently. Canadian adjudicators expect warnings before dismissal for attendance, and uneven enforcement turns a lawful dismissal into a reprisal or discrimination claim.
- Screen call-offs for protected reasons before applying any step — a statutory sick or family day, or an absence tied to a disability, gets a different track than an overslept alarm.
Comparing jurisdictions? See every published guide on the Canadian sick leave laws hub, or the US state guides.